1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a container for holding or accommodating containers for drinks therein.
2. Description of the Related Art
A container holder for holding containers for drinks has been known, container holder which comprises a holder body. The holder body is formed as a box shape substantially, has an opening opened upward, and demarcates an accommodation space. The container holder holds containers, which are fitted into the holder body, within the accommodation space. Such a container holder is usually provided with a cover which opens and closes the opening of the holder body.
Container holders are usually disposed in limited spaces, represented by automotive passenger rooms, for instance. Accordingly, it is needed to form container holders as less bulky shapes as possible. However, note herein that container holders provided with covers might turned out to be bulky, because the covers might project greatly outward from the container holders when they open the openings. Consequently, a container holder has been developed in order to avoid the drawback, container which can accommodate a cover in a holder body when the cover opens an opening of the holder body. FIG. 8 and FIG. 9 schematically illustrate cross-sectional views of such a conventional container holder.
As illustrated in FIG. 8, a conventional container holder 100 comprises a box-shaped holder body 101, and a plate-shaped cover 102. The holder body 101 demarcates an accommodation space 103 for holding containers therein. The accommodation space 103 opens upward. Moreover, the cover 102 has a leg 105 at one of the opposite ends, and an engager 106. The leg 105 extends into the accommodation space 103. The engager 106 is formed at the leading end of the leg 105. In addition, the engager 106 is held swingably to one of the inner side walls of the holder body 101 demarcating the accommodation space 103.
In the conventional container holder 100, the cover 102 swings about the engager 106 to move from a close position, at which the cover 102 covers an opening 107 of the holder body 101 as illustrate in FIG. 8, to an open position, at which the cover 102 opens the opening 107 as illustrated in FIG. 9, or vice versa. Thus, the swinging cover 102 opens and closes the opening 107 of the holder body 101.
In the thus constructed conventional container holder 100, a rear end 110 of the cover 102, one of the opposite ends of the cover 102, makes a leading end when the cover 102 swings from the close position to the open position. However, the rear end 110 of the swinging cover 102 might interfere with an inner periphery 111 of the holder body 101 which demarcates the opening 107. In order to inhibit such interference, it is necessary to provide a clearance “a” between the outer periphery of the cover 102 and the inner periphery 111 of the holder body 101's opening 107 as illustrated in FIG. 8. However, providing the clearance between the outer periphery of the cover 102 and the inner periphery 111 of the holder body 101's opening 107 might impair the integrity between the cover 102 and the holder body 101 to result in a problem that the decorativeness of the conventional container holder 100 deteriorates. Moreover, the clearance “a” might result in a problem that thin foreign matters, such as papers, fall down into the holder body 101 through the clearance “a.” In order to solve these problems, it is better not to provide the clearance “a.” Thus, the conventional container holder 100 might suffer from the trade-off circumstances.
Moreover, a front end 112 of the cover 102, the other one of the opposite ends of the cover 102, makes a trailing end when the cover 102 swings from the close position to the open position. However, as illustrated in FIG. 9, the front end 112 keeps projecting upward from the holder body 101 when the cover 102 swings to the open position. A container might bump into the front end 112 of the cover 102, which thus projects upward from the holder body 101, when holding the container in the accommodation space 103 or removing the container, held in the accommodation space 103, from the accommodation space 103. In this instance, it might be less likely to hold containers in or remove them from the conventional container holder 101 so that there arises a problem as well that the usability of the conventional container holder 100 deteriorates. In order to make the projection of the front end 112 of the cover 102 less, it is needed to move the cover 102 greatly. However, the cover 102, which moves greatly, has enlarged its swing locus to result in a problem that the clearance “a” should be furthermore enlarged.
On the other hand, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 2002-362,237, a cover can be disposed below the top surface of a holder body when the cover swings to the close position in order to make it possible to inhibit the rear end of the cover from interfering with the inner periphery of the holder body's opening. In this instance, since the center of the swinging cover's opening is disposed down below, the inner periphery of the holder body is disposed off the swing locus of the cover even when the projection of the cover, which swings to the open position, is made less by moving the cover greatly. Thus, it is possible to avoid the interference between the cover and the inner periphery of the holder body's opening, and consequently to narrow down the clearance width. In this arrangement, however, the freedom of designing container holder might degrade, because it is necessary to dispose the top surface of the cover at a position lower than the top surface of the holder body when the cover swings to the close position. Moreover, there might arise a problem that the decorativeness of container holder is poor, because a step is made between the top surface of the cover and the top surface of the holder body when the cover swings to the close position.